Michael Turner: Not seeing the signs

In his letter to the editor this past Tuesday, Paul Brabenec said that City Manager Deb Hinsvark told him that it would take a city ordinance to ban smoking at city bus stops. Steamboat Springs Revised Municipal Code Part 2, Chapter 11, Article 1, addresses Smoking in Places of Public Accommodation. Section 11-5 (a) states: “Smoking shall be prohibited in all places of public accommodation within the city, including but not limited to, the following places. (3) Public transportation vehicles, passenger tramways, or any type of transportation service vehicles and waiting areas of public depots.” That sounds like legal speak for a bus stop to me, especially the Gondola Transit Center.

As a side note, Section 11-9, Posting of Signs states: (a) Within ninety (90) days of the effective date of this article, “No Smoking” or “Smoke Free” signs and/or the international “No Smoking” symbol shall clearly and conspicuously posted in places of public accommodation.

How many years now, since our Steamboat Springs City Council passed the no smoking ordinances? I’ve yet to ever see a “No Smoking” sign at one of our bus stops. At some point, I’d recommend that every City Council member actually spend some time riding the bus.

They would find the shelters often littered beyond belief with trash and cigarette butts. What an impression it must leave with our visitors.

The existing ordinance is clearly sufficient to put up signs at bus stops. It isn't as if lots of citations will be written and the city's prosecution would suffer a great loss if a judge were to rule that the ordinance didn't actually cover bus stop shelters.

The second ordinance mentioned in the letter suggests that a citizen could submit a written complaint to the city's code enforcement dept demanding that Deb Hinsvark either order No Smoking signs to be installed or face a municipal judge.

"And the sign says "Anybody caught [smoking here] will be shot on sight"
So I[ fired up my bong and yelled at the bus driver]
Hey! What gives you the right!?
To p[revent] me from sittin' right here & tokin'] Mother Nature in
If God was here, he'd tell it to your face, man, you're some kind of sinner"

I would also recommend that every city council member ride the city bus. Especially during the summer schedule when everyone is packed into the last bus from downtown to the mountain area. It is standing room only, loud and usually quite a drunken scene. As well, it would be nice if the last bus left downtown later than 11:44pm. The bars are open until 2am, so everyone who wants to stay out later than 11:44 must find a different way home. It stands to reason that a lot of those people probably choose to drive.